HORTICULTURALLY, it is probably the biggest operation in the world. Yet few people are aware of the dedication that goes into the thousands of hectares devoted to the memory of those who have died in war.
The work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is a round-the-clock operation all year round – and all over the world, caring for 1.75million graves in 150 countries and with a budget of £44million.
In the UK and Ireland 448 plots are regarded as full horticultural sites, while the total number of memorials in Britain numbers around 12,500 – from one headstone to a full memorial. War graves number 170,000 in the UK and Ireland.
And 32 full-time gardeners are employed in the UK alone – with 6,000 contractors, whose work is supervised by 10 regional supervisors, responsible for sites from the Isles of Arran to the Channel Islands and Iceland to the Faroe Islands.
The biggest war cemetery in the UK is at Brookwood in Surrey, with more than 5,500 graves.
David Jenkins and Derek Parker from the CWGC
Other large sites include Cambridge City with more than 1,000 war graves and Harrogate with about the same number (both war grave plots within civil cemeteries) while at Lyness near Hoy in Scotland there are 573 graves.
One of the CWGCs biggest sites in the central region is at Oxford Botley Cemetery where there are 741 war graves.
